Opening her eyes, Bella tried to ignore the roll of nausea that turned her stomach. The pain that seemed to come from every inch of her body was enough to leave her shaking under his hold. Whether she wanted to accept his help or not, Sam's grip on her arm was the only reason she was still standing.
"Where's Edward?" She asked, her eyes trailing over the carnage that had once been her backyard. Blood, debris and chunks of something pale lay everywhere, shining an eerie blue in the moonlight. It took all the strength she had to keep her eyes from reaching out to Embry and Paul, but she needed to hold herself together for just a little bit longer.
"Well let's take a tour, shall we?" Dragging her along by his side, Sam spoke in unfitting hilarity as he pointed out the chunks she'd previously been unable to identify. "Well, he's here, oh and here, and look… there's another piece. I think that may have been his elbow. What do you think, Isabella?" He leered down at her and though it wasn't the worst thing that had happened all evening, she could feel her chest begin to restrict as panic finally set in.
Where was Jacob? She screamed in her head. Where was Quil? Or her father? Where was anyone who could do anything to put a stop to this night?
Sam found her struggle amusing and though he let her slump to the floor at his feet, he did nothing to aid her as she wheezed beneath him.
"Enough!" He bellowed when he grew tired of her weakness, so deep into his quest for retribution that she was no longer a person to him, more of a tool to punish and exact his revenge upon. As such he still needed her, and though it pained him to do so, he stepped away and watched her from a distance as her body heaved up and down. Finally, just as he was thinking he might actually have to find another way to get what he wanted, she passed out; her body taking back control when the fragility of her mind became too much.
"Figures." He muttered derogatively, leaning back against a tree to admire his handiwork. He counted down the drips of blood falling from Paul's body as he watched and listened to the changes in her body and when her heart reached a beat, unbeknownst to her, matching her wolf, he decided it was time to wake her once again.
Bella didn't react this time, didn't need clarity to understand that the man bruising her flesh with his careless touch was far from a friend. Instead of questions, she watched him, trying to figure out her place in all this. But when he only lingered at her side expectantly, her impatience and pain forced her mouth.
"Why did you kill him? You needed him…didn't you?" Bella guessed, doubting Sam would be able to subdue both Jake and Quil by himself, but hesitating just slightly to be so presumptuous.
"He served his purpose." Sam replied nonchalantly, and were he not holding her in his steel grip, she could almost picture him picking dirt from his nails, bored with her and everything she was being forced to endure.
"What about me? Why haven't you killed me too?" She asked, too tired to understand that her question was bold, daring almost.
"You still don't understand do you? You think I did all this so I could spend another fifty years telling school boys not to piss on trees?" Sam snorted, angered by her lack of guile. She couldn't help but flinch as he shook her, her fear saving her momentarily from another physical attack as his wolf was molified by her show of respect.
"So you lied to Edward about your reason for doing this? What else was a lie?" Bella asked and this time Sam couldn't stop himself as he threw her back down to the ground, no longer wanting to soil his hands holding up something so feeble.
"Edward believed what he wanted to hear. He was desperate and too stupid to think for himself. Not only that, but he was a leech and an utter fool to trust his enemy. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of times he willingly turned his back on me. He relied on his gift too much, his arrogance, his foolish belief in his omniscience made him weak, but I wasn't going to wait around for your pleas to finally make it through that stupidity of his."
Bella desperately wanted to curl up on the ground, to give in and just accept whatever torture he was eventually going to inflict, but his words seemed important. If she was honest, she wanted to know why her body was screaming in pain, why her wolf and best friend were hanging lifeless from the trees, why any of this was happening at all.
"You want to know a secret? I don't think he even loved you, I think he was just obsessed. That stupid little sister of his told him you were the one and it blinded him to everything else. He didn't even stop to think what it meant that you were already bound to his enemy. He didn't bother to question the things he saw in people's minds, things which when you are dealing with wolves were easily the thoughts of others." As Sam spoke, Bella couldn't help but notice how his focus turned more and more to Paul, how his eyes would narrow and his hands shake with ever increasing violence.
"So you lied to him, showed him just enough that he thought they were hurting me, lying about the imprint and…?" Bella spoke simply hoping he would focus back on her, but her choice came at a price and as he turned towards her as if remembering she was there, she felt her body tense as he crossed the space between them at a speed she couldn't fathom. Pulling her into the air, she knew these moments could be her last, knew without a doubt that he could kill her and feel not a shred of remorse. Knowing this gave her the courage to speak, the courage to pursue her thoughts. "What about Jared? Was that a lie too or did you force him to kill Emily, like the coward I know you are?"
She didn't understand that the weightlessness she felt was her body flying through the air, at least not until she slammed down to the ground twenty feet from where she'd previously lay slumped. Her body was too inflamed and broken to recognize where the pain started and ended, and as she moaned loudly, neither of them noticed two silhouettes dancing through the moonlit trees.
"I'm tired of your stupid questions. You interrupt me again and I'll kill Embry; I'll snap his neck before you even finish your first word." Sam growled and though pain tore through her body, she pulled herself upwards on her good hand, nodding with wary consent until he finally looked away.
Bella held herself in as he walked towards both Paul and Embry and though it took every ounce of reserve to do it, she held in her cry of warning, her shout of anguish as he tore the ropes that bound Paul to the trees, sending him hurtling to the floor like a giant broken doll.
Falling flat on his face, she could see what they had done. The flesh of his back was torn open, his spine sliced with clawed marks and this time Bella couldn't hold in her response. Her whole body shuddered, the sobs that had been building letting loose as she broke down, her body heaving up and down in pain and terror.
"It looks pretty, doesn't it? All that red and white? It's a fitting punishment really, don't you think?" Sam mused maniacally.
As he kneeled down in front of her, he gripped her tear stained face, raising it so she was forced to look at her wolf's shredded back. Instinctively, she closed her eyes, hiding the macabre sight in a self-imposed abyss.
"Oh, so you don't want to see him all broken? I felt the same way once, but it didn't stop your precious wolf from tearing up what was mine. It didn't stop him from killing her simply because he was too weak to hold himself back." Sam's hard finger pressed down on her eyelids and though she tried to pull her head back from his touch, his grip was far too strong.
"Open them, or I'll tear them off myself." He instructed in a hard whisper and immediately she did as he asked, finding his malignant eyes staring blankly through hers.
"How do you think he'll feel when I do the same to you? Do you think he'll beg for you, beg for your life as he watches you die, too wounded to help you?" Bella could feel his fingernails pressing deep into the thin flesh of her neck as he held her head high, and though she had no proof, she knew her blood was already falling from his touch.
"Leave her alone, Sam, and I'll give you what you want." His voice was like a soft summer breeze, the perfect antidote to the terror of the night and just for a moment Bella closed her eyes and allowed herself to believe he was real, to imagine that she was no longer alone. However, the reality was a harsher truth and as he tore deeper into her flesh with his jagged nails, she felt her mind give in. She knew that no manner of shaking would wake her up this time; no amount of punishment would bring her back from the thick blanket of darkness.
Her eyes fluttered closed just as Sam's fingers were pried from her neck and she fell backwards, forgotten for the moment as Jacob hauled back the older wolf, dragging him lifelessly away from his victims.
"You took your time, Black. Another moment and I just might have taken off her head." Sam taunted, feeling the power of the young Alpha try and push through his years of solitude. Sam couldn't remember how it felt to be under the control of an Alpha, how it felt to be tethered to something so powerful. The natural pull wasn't something he welcomed and without much effort he pushed back against the pressure, letting the young Alpha know he wasn't going to be taken so easily.
"You would welcome me into your pack after I've forced a false guilt on one of your brothers, sending him to the trees to find his peace? You would welcome me after I destroyed my imprint and left yours to die?" Sam mocked, pushing back against Jacob's hold and rearing to his full height, challenging his dominance.
"You think you can take me in and train me like a common dog, train me to obey you? You think there is anything good left in this body?" Sam scoffed, stepped forward, standing toe to toe with the only man he respected enough to fall to.
Jacob didn't say a word, and though Sam was too busy trying to find his finality, Jacob was half listening to the only wolf he had left standing do his bidding, pulling away the lives that he needed to be safe before he was willing to commit to anything.
"So you killed your imprint when you could have saved her?" Jacob asked, raising an eyebrow as Sam faltered slightly, his eyes betraying the truth of his actions with a sway of guilt.
"She wasn't meant for me; the Elders brought her to me as a punishment for accepting the leeches so close to our land, for bringing danger to our people. Otherwise, why would they give her to me only to take her away again?" Sam seemed almost to be pleading with Jacob for some explanation, for acceptance that what he'd forced himself to believe was true.
"They were punishing me for betraying them, for giving myself to another when my path was already chosen, punishing me for my impatience." Sam continued, and though it reviled Jacob to find any commonality with the insanity of the elder wolf, he found himself feeling something akin to pity rise from his gut.
"What if she wasn't punishment?" Jacob asked pushing aside the weak emotions as he looked around at the blood stained land, the bodies still torn and twisted where so much life had ebbed away. His pack was in ruins, the imprints bloodied and beaten beyond recognition and he was forced to stand here and rationalize with a man who had clearly abandoned his soul.
Except Sam wasn't willing to accept another scenario, one where the blame and his choices weren't as clear as he needed them to be to rest easy at night.
"What if it was your chance to be happy? What if you were wrong, all of you? What if her injuries weren't even that bad? Tell me Sam, did you have a doctor take a look at her? Did you bother to even find out, or did you just make an assumption?" Jake could feel his anger rising as he tried to hold himself back for just a little bit longer. He understood that time wasn't necessarily on their side, but this wasn't something that could be left for the Chief to clear up, and he knew it wouldn't be long before the search party that had brought about the beginning of the end would come full circle.
Instead of deflating as Jacob expected, Sam's shoulders seemed only to rise as his heart pounded more steadily in his chest. "She was gone! You wouldn't question me if you knew what it felt like to feel your imprint's lifeless body in your arms. You would understand everything I've done and I would challenge you not to seek revenge. But then, I guess we'll see how you feel tomorrow, little Alpha, when perhaps you'll face the same fate as I did."
Jacob tried not to allow his mind to linger on Leah, on the possibility that she might be gone. He refused to believe he would ever become the monster standing in front of him, a monster who had no conscience over taking the lives of his own people. Too many souls had suffered because of one event which had spiraled out of control; that was still spiraling this very second.
"It was a mistake, one which you should have spent your wisdom and your power trying to fix. But you were too blind to see that, weren't you? You were too hell bent on what the Elders did or didn't want that you forgot she wasn't even gone yet." It was the only scenario that Jacob could find any comprehension in, any possibility other than that Sam had simply always been destined for something so horrendous. Looking at the shell of a man in front of him, Jacob could find no guilt in his eyes, no remorse or understanding that there had been another path than the one he'd chosen.
"How do I save them? How do I stop that poison from killing them?" Jacob spat out, tired of words and desperate to be done with the craziness that had taken over their lives. It was the last salvation for the man in front of him, the very last reason to keep him alive as Quil finally cleared those that he could from immediate danger.
Sam could feel the end, feel the pressure of the Alpha as he reared up and with one last stand he smiled widely, showing his teeth to a man and wolf, both clearly on the edge of their control. Knowing the words would be his last, he spoke them with a sense of satisfaction.
"You can't."
The very last thing Jacob saw before he let go was the rise and fall of the old wolf's shoulders taking his last breath as a man, comprehension in his eyes as he riled up against the Elders of the land, all vestiges of conversation over as he pitted forward, man taking his final stand as beast.
Jacob didn't know as he rolled into his spiritual flesh if he was doing the right thing, didn't know if his conscience could bear such a weight, but he also understood that he was the only one who could do it, the only one who could rid his land, his family, his pack and his imprint of this monster. As acceptance rolled through his body, he rose up, a howl of retribution in his throat as he bore down on the wolf in front of him, his teeth tearing into a fur lined throat, tasting the first drop of tainted blood.
a/n: Thank you to my wonderful beta Twiticulate and to all you readers. I'll see you all again in a few days time. Until then...xxx